The list of actors with whom Barbara Rush shared the big screen is impressive. Just considering 1958’s “The Young Lions," it would include Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Dean Martin.

“I did work with a lot of interesting and talented men,” said Ms. Rush from Los Angeles. “And actresses, too, such as Jane Wyman. I found the nicest people were actually the biggest stars because they were all so gracious and helpful. James Mason once told me if a cast isn’t happy and don’t have a communal feeling with each other, a film doesn’t work.”

“The Young Lions” did work, and became a critical and box office success. While rehearsing a balcony scene during her opening 10-minute segment with Brando set in wintry Bavaria, Rush considered adding a little realism.

Barbara Rush and Marlon Brando, with the world's largest party horn, celebrating New Year's Eve in The Young Lions(Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)

“We filmed it on a sound stage and I was wearing a light chiffon dress. So I started to sort of shiver since we were supposed to be outside in the snow. ‘What are you doing?’ Marlon asked, ‘it’s not really cold.’ I said it’s called pretend – we’re supposed to be in the Alps! Marlon actually thought we should have gone to the Alps to film the segment, although we did eventually travel to France and Germany for other location shots.”

In her brief scenes with Clift, the actor suggested Rush should surprise him so his responses would appear more natural. “He said he could tell by my face and voice what I was about to do and that the audience would know, too. So I changed my approach and he was right.”

As for Martin, he was just beginning to extend his dramatic film career after a decade of comedies with Jerry Lewis.

“It was a serious war film, but Dean still made me laugh the most on the set – a lovely man. He would say ‘I don’t drink anymore… I don’t drink any less, but I don’t drink any more!’ I never saw him drunk, it was all an act. And on the set, he told me ‘Barbara, just tell me what to do and how to say the lines and I’ll be fine.’ But Dean didn’t need any acting advice.”

Nor does Ms. Rush today who, at 90, can still find joy in acting and working with a congenial cast while readily sharing her own experiences. She recently completed a short promo – “Bleeding Hearts: The Arteries of Glenda Bryant” – for a new TV series her niece, “General Hospital” actress Carolyn Hennesy, is pitching to networks.

“I play a kind of vampire – something quite new for me!” said Rush. “But it was fun to do.”

With a career that includes extensive television and theatrical roles, Rush was prolific on the big screen throughout the 50s but says she was actually horrified after viewing her early films. “I began working for Paramount and I would literally cry when I first saw myself on the screen. I thought I looked and sounded dreadful.”

Although receiving top billing with Richard Derr in her fourth film, the 1951 sci-fi classic “When Worlds Collide,” she says such early films were hard to watch. “I didn’t feel I was terribly important to the story. I told my mom that I had no future as an actress because I couldn’t act.”

Fortunately, a visitor from the Universal lot offered encouraging advice.

“I was one of the studio’s young contract actors and we were like a club – learning skills together such as horseback riding and fencing. Laurence Olivier came to talk to us one day and asked ‘Have you heard your recorded voices?’ We all said yes, and didn’t like what we heard! He suggested we start watching the rushes from the previous day’s filming and get used to how we looked and sounded on the screen. We did and it was great advice to build a young actor’s confidence.”

Barbara Rush and Richard Carlson, with Charles Drake, right, in It Came From Outer Space(Photo: Universal Pictures)

In 1953, Rush followed up with another popular sci-fi film, “It Came from Outer Space” with Richard Carlson.

“I love sci-fi and ‘E.T. (the Extra-Terrestrial,’1982) is one of my favorites because the aliens don’t want to harm us. That was the same premise in ‘It Came from Outer Space’ which was based on a Ray Bradbury story. He was one of the first writers to suggest maybe aliens are good beings and aren’t out to destroy us. I just wish they had left the alien’s appearance to the imagination rather than revealing them as ugly monsters at the end, which I thought kind of cheapened the film.”

Actresses in early sci-fi films were often required to produce blood curdling screams when startled and Rush’s character in “It Came from Outer Space” let loose several ear poppers. “Did I ever,” she said with a laugh. “Oh yes, that was me – I was a good screamer!”

But she was screaming with laughter on set with co-star Rock Hudson in three of her following films. “You couldn’t help but love someone like Rock who had a wonderful sense of humor and just loved to laugh. He was just the funniest actor I ever worked with.”

Rock Hudson and Barbara Rush in Taza, Son of Cochise(Photo: Universal Pictures)

Playing a pair of Indians in the western “Taza, Son of Cochise," Rush’s character was named Oona. “Off camera Rock would call me Oona, dos, tres!”

Filmed largely in Utah, she still recalls the intense heat. “We had air conditioning in the motel rooms, but out on location in Moab it was brutal. At the end of the day, we would all return to the motel and immediately jump in the swimming pool.”

The pair traveled to Ireland teaming up again for a historical drama, “Captain Lightfoot” (“Rock got to spank me in that!”) and, back in Hollywood, for the romantic drama “Magnificent Obsession.” The sentimental film about anonymously performing good deeds left a lasting impression on the actress.

“We talked about it during filming,” she recalled. “If you do a good deed without seeking recognition or reward, it gives you the feeling that for just a moment maybe you did something that really mattered. I’ve tried to do that all my life since making the film.”

That benevolent spirit was shared by another co-star.

“Frank Sinatra!” she noted. The two first worked together in “Come Blow My Horn” in 1963, then “Robin and the 7 Hoods” the following year.

“Frank would be sitting in his camp chair on the set, reading the newspaper, and suddenly call over Gloria, his secretary, then send her off. I finally asked her what he was doing and she explained he would read stories about someone in trouble – maybe an actor who had been hurt, with expensive hospital bills – and instruct her to send a check anonymously. He loved to help people, but never wanted to be known as a hero, which was what ‘Magnificent Obsession’ was all about.”

Frank Sinatra and Barbara Rush in Robin and the 7 Hoods(Photo: Warner Bros.)

Sinatra wasn’t always quite so noble on the film set, sometimes arriving late and well-known for disliking multiple takes.

“We had to be done early with makeup and hair, and be ready for him. But I needed to rehearse. So I called Carolyn Jones, who had just worked with Sinatra, and asked her advice. She said ‘Barbara, I know exactly how you’re feeling. Go up to him and say, Mr. Sinatra, I’m so honored to be working with you and I don’t want to disappoint you. Could you run through the lines with me just once?’ So I did, and he said ‘Baby doll, of course we’ll rehearse!’ He would clear the set, we’d rehearse, and the shots were perfect.”

While Sinatra may have been a bigger than life co-star, 5 years earlier Rush starred in the intense drama “Bigger than Life,” suffering on-screen abuse at the hands of a drug-crazed James Mason.

“It was based on a true story about a teacher and the side-effects he experienced from addiction to the new drug cortisone. James was fascinated by the story and wanted to produce and star in the movie.”

James Mason and Barbara Rush in Bigger than Life(Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)

Several years later, Barbara accompanied her second husband, publicist Warren Cowan, to a meeting with Mason who was Cowan’s client. Their paths crossed while Mason was filming in a cathedral.

“We arrived at around 1 am and heard this familiar voice ringing out with Shakespeare: ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.’ Truly a wonderful actor with an unforgettable voice.”

Prior to Cowan, Rush had been married to popular leading man Jeffrey Hunter.

“We did a film with Joanne Woodward (‘No Down Payment,’ 1957) but were in separate scenes,” she recalled. “So we never really did a film together. He was always wandering around the world making movies and so was I. There was a period of about a year and a half when we never saw each other. I told him that was ridiculous and he agreed. We divorced but remained friends.”

Rush also counted the late Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne among her many entertainment friends.

“He was such an iconic figure and taught a lot of young people to love classic films. My daughter and I had dinner with him about 2 months before he died, but he was so ill. He needed a lot of blood transfusions and it wore him out, but he never complained. When he left to walk back to his apartment, which wasn’t far, I suggested I should walk with him but he said ‘No Barb, I’m going to do it alone.’ So I watched him walk away in his overcoat, this tall figure with broad shoulders and a cane, and almost ran after him. But I knew he would not have wanted that. It was the last time I saw him.”

Barbara Rush and Robert Osborne at the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival(Photo: Turner Entertainment)

Rush and Osborne had known each other for many years and appeared together at the popular spring TCM Classic Film Festivals in Los Angeles.

“I remember Bob calling me up one time and saying ‘We’re playing one of your old films tonight,’ she recalled. “Sure, there was a time when I didn’t like seeing myself in those early films, but I watched that evening and thought ‘Hey, I was actually pretty good!’ If you work with great actors it rubs off on you. I think I gave some performances I can be quite proud of.”